Fund approved for workers traumatized by Newtown shootings

The Sandy Hook Workers Assistance Fund will be used to reimburse medical expenses and lost wages. It will be overseen by the Connecticut Office of Victim Services and funded through private donations (including corporate donations), which will be handled by the United Way of Newtown.

By Brenda Sullivan | HTNP News Editor

The Connecticut General Assembly unanimously gave final approval today (March 6) for legislation that will create a special fund to assist workers who were traumatized by the shootings at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, CT. The Sandy Hook Workers Assistance Fund will be used to reimburse medical expenses and lost wages.

It will be overseen by the Connecticut Office of Victim Services and funded through private donations (including corporate donations), which will be handled by the United Way of Newtown.

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Windham Hospital Auxiliary offers college scholarships

Windham Community Hospital in Willimantic CT. Contributed photo.

The Auxiliary to Windham Hospital invites applications from area high school seniors for the Anne L. Card Memorial Scholarship.

The scholarship, named in honor of the late Anne L. Card who was a 50-plus year member of the Auxiliary and a dedicated volunteer at the hospital, awards two $1,000 scholarships to students planning to enter a full-time course of study in medical-related fields.

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Three honored for carrying on Dr. King’s legacy

Honored at the Feb. 27, 2013 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Distinguished Service Award Reception at Eastern Connecticut State University are (L-R) the event’s keynote speaker, author and poet Billie Jean Young, Eastern student Soely Barros, Connecticut Supreme Court Justice The Honorable Lubbie Harper Jr., Assistant Dean of the School Continuing Education Indira Petoskey; and Eastern’s President Elsa Núñez. Contributed photo.

Eastern Connecticut State University presented the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Distinguished Service Award to senior Soely Barros, Indira Petoskey, assistant dean of the School Continuing Education and the Honorable Connecticut Supreme Court Justice Lubbie Harper Jr. at a reception on Feb. 27 in the J. Eugene Smith Library.

The awards recognize members of the campus community and community-at-large whose actions demonstrate distinguished service in promoting the ideals of Dr. King, and to further the goals of diversity and social equality.

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Watch for projected images on the Willimantic Brewing Co exterior

The collection of twenty rotating images is each artist’s individual interpretation of a Green Light, in support of The Last Green Valley and their 3rd Annual Green Lights Project.

In partnership with the Willimantic Screen Project, The Willimantic Brewing Co. will host a “Green Lights Night” on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013 beginning at 5 pm.

Presented in conjunction with Thread City Development Inc., Eastern Connecticut State University and the Town of Windham, the Willimantic Brewing Company will project digital images onto the High Street façade of its building each night from Wednesday thorugh St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 2013.

The collection of twenty rotating images is each artist’s individual interpretation of a Green Light, in support of The Last Green Valley and their 3rd Annual Green Lights Project.

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Windham Theatre Guild presents WWII classic

The Windham Theatre Guild presents the next SecondStage production for the 2012-2013 season, Arthur Miller’s classic drama “All My Sons,” with four performances only, at the Burton Leavitt Theatre.

The Windham Theatre Guild presents the next SecondStage production for the 2012-2013 season, Arthur Miller’s classic drama “All My Sons,” with four performances only, at the Burton Leavitt Theatre.

It’s WWII and Joe Keller and Steve Deever run a machine shop that makes airplane parts for the army. When the shop turns out defective parts, Keller and Deever are tried and sent to prison, but Keller gets his conviction overturned and even makes a lot of money… but his crimes come back to haunt him.

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Gov. Malloy – Storm Sandy aid to CT tops $50 million

Milford, CT, November 17, 2012 – The constant beating of this building by Sandy’s wind and waves destroyed the electric service entry and more. FEMA opened Disaster Recovery Centers near the areas hardest hit, to help Sandy survivors rebuild safer and stronger homes. Photo by Marilee Caliendo/FEMA

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy today (Feb. 22) announced that more than $50 million in federal assistance has been approved, to date, to help individuals and businesses with disaster expenses since President Obama approved the Disaster Declaration following Storm Sandy.

“I want to thank FEMA for extending the deadline to apply for disaster assistance, not once but twice,” said Gov. Malloy. “With over 12,000 claims filed, clearly many residents took advantage of the help they were entitled to.”

“Getting back to normal after a disaster like this is paramount, and the assistance from FEMA was undeniably a big factor for many in making that possible,” the governor said.

A total of 12,380 Connecticut residents registered for federal disaster assistance during the application period that ended Feb. 11.

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Congressman Joe Courtney on looming budget cuts

Connecticut Congressman Joe Courtney.

Dear Friend,

Last Friday, with sequestration’s across-the-board, indiscriminate cuts looming and a host of outstanding issues still unaddressed, Speaker Boehner called a vote on whether the House should adjourn and return home for the week.

I voted against adjourning and said, “As precious seconds tick away, the House should be in Washington doing its job and finding a compromise to protect our economy. Speaker Boehner should reverse course, and keep the House in session.”

Sequestration was designed to spur bipartisan action in Congress to address our long-term fiscal outlook. When used in the past, that is precisely what happened. In fact, former-Sen. Phil Gramm (R-TX) said: “It was never the objective of Gramm-Rudman [legislation that used sequestration in 1985] to trigger the sequester; the objective of Gramm-Rudman was to have the threat of the sequester force compromise and action.”

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Connecticut militia members sue state

Photo courtesy of 1st Company Governor’s Foot Guard

By Zachary Janowski | Raising Hale

Members of one of Connecticut’s ceremonial militia units are suing the state for allegedly seizing $10,000 worth of private ammunition, terminating a lease and failing to pay members for training.

State officials claim the unit – the 1st Company Governor’s Foot Guard – has not kept its weapons and ammunition secure, and that it was within the state’s right to terminate the lease and not pay the members for training.

The militia unit’s board of trustees do not control the 1st Company; under a unique statutory arrangement dating back to 1885, the state created a special corporate entity so the trustees could own and maintain the unit’s armory.

Although the unit is ceremonial in function today, it still falls under the command of Brig. Gen. Thaddeus Martin, adjutant general of the Connecticut Military Department.

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